The December month excites us because that’s when we are ending the year on high note by looking back at the year that was. Yes, 2021 was a challenging year for us – just like for many people across the world. It was the pinnacle of struggle for me – and for those who have known me for the past five years or have read my book, “Sound and Fury: The Chronicles of Healing”, may attest to this. On 22 November 2021, I shared my reflections on Facebook. Let me quote that for the sake of those who are not on this social media platform:
“Today, five years ago in 2016, I woke up fully paralysed – I could only shake my head, move my lips to speak, wink and breath. To use “cabbage” as an adjective will be an insult to this vegetable as it does taste well if handled by a great chef (I remember growing up every villager calling it “John 14”) and courtesy of adoption of healthy lifestyles, everyone loves it nowadays. So I became fully paralysed for seven months. Yes, as you’re aware I am recovering though I still walk like a penguin (a duck is better because it can also fly) – I make a perfect scene when wearing a black suit and a white shirt! I’ve adopted my new name “Loop en Val” as I often trip – even by a piece of tissue paper – and dive to the floor better than Bafana Bafana goalkeeper.
Yes, 22 November 2016 marked a turning point in my life. The near death experience redefined my life as I reflected on my past: the good deeds, the missteps, the hurt I caused others and my shortcomings. This experience brought the De Klerk last message to the nation into familiar perspective for me. When you’re facing death, you reflect: you pardon yourself for the pain you inflicted on others, you pardon those who hurt you, and most importantly, you pardon the victims of your venom who may find it difficult to forgive you. I forgive him mindful of the fact that I didn’t suffer apartheid atrocities as much as others: I grew up in a rural village with no services from government; I spent only 13-months in detention under the state of emergency; and, my university studies were interrupted, but I’m sad for him because while I can hear him apologising, there are thousands of comrades who got killed and can’t hear him.
Pardon my detour. These five years of tribulations have ushered me into a new season: the season of hope as it’s anchored on my deeper understanding of the purpose God has re/defined for me; capacity to decode and appreciate the complexity of human nature; and a vision to celebrate the inner ME. Thanks God…”
I have indeed fully embraced the depth of what it is meant when it is said that one has to “see worthwhile things growing in the dirt of imperfection…”
Excuse me for my personal detour, but the reality is that my life is intricately intertwined with the Brandhill Africa brand. The group’s pay-off line is Research. Innovate. Re/engineer. This is also personal for me. Indeed in the past five years, I drew inspiration from Barbara De Angelis when she mused: “The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place…”
Back to the Brandhill Africa group, this December we also celebrate a sense of achievement because we’ve just hosted, despite all odds stacked against us, the second instalment of our annual Biashara Services and Products Africa (BiSPA) Conference and Exhibition. This webinar – held under the theme: “Consolidating the African Free Trade initiative and pushing the frontiers of COVID-19 back” – has since grown from its inaugural event last year on 10 December 2021 – and the subsequent quarterly webinars we held this year as build up to the December jamboree.
We are eternally indebted to our speakers. These were Ben Leyka, the CEO of DRC Invest (a trade and investment agency of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who also happens to be the CEO of the African Agri Council) whose topic was “Developing African food and agriculture through enterprise development”. The second speaker was Eustace Mashimbye, CEO of Proudly South African, whose topic was “localisation as a means of economic growth”. An award-winning business author, entrepreneur and business coach, Kgabo Mabunda, spoke about “the opportunities and threats faced by SMMEs on the continent”. Hennie de Villiers, the Chief Strategy Officer of the Pretoria Chamber of Commerce and Industry, tackled the topic: “Post-pandemic business recovery strategies – The role of the business chambers”. As the convenor of the summit and Group CEO and Chairman of Brandhill Africa group, my topic was “brand Africa: Threats and opportunities.” We also gave the platform to Dimakatso Malwela’s House of D’Licacy – a non-alcoholic wine brand. My gratefulness also goes to Stevens Mokgalapa, CEO of Brandhill Africa Institute of Public Diplomacy, for steering the ship as the Programme Director. View the three hour conference video below:
Broadly speaking, the themes covered were as follows:
- Overview of AfCFTA as well as each regional economic community (REC)
- Status of Intra-African trade especially key economic sectors
- Building resilience to and preparing for post-COVID-19 recovery
- Inputs on AfCFTA policies and programmes
- Enhancing regional trade
- Role of the African business community in promoting AfCFTA and consolidating economic solidarity
- Resource mobilisation for the AfCFTA – funding, government support programmes, etc.
- Contending with existing free trade agreements
- Factoring global trade in the implementation of AfCFTA
- Managing and reversing conflicts to advance trade and investment.
We are happy by our success. Looking at the calibre of speakers attracted; the excellent quality of their presentations; the breadth and depth of the themes covered: feed Africa; power Africa; industrialise Africa; and, integrate Africa; and the broad spectrum of virtual audiences from across Africa and other continents such as the Americas, Europe and Asia, it has indeed exceeded our expectations.
We launched this conference series – with this news portal, Jambo Africa Online – as platforms to respond to the worrying findings of Thebe Ikalafeng’s annual Brand Africa Survey that has found that while during their launch year in 2010, 34% of the “Top 100 Most Admired Brands in Africa” were the continent’s indigenous brands, this paltry percentage has since been consistently dwindling down to reaching 13% in 2020. This cut out the work for us to ensure that we help build reputations of “Made in Africa” service and product brands so that the 1.3 billion consumers in the continent may embrace and uptake them. Our argument is that the integration of Africa into a common market, through the operationalisation of the AfCFTA, may not benefit these brands as long as foreign ones continue to dominate in the marketplace.
Both platforms have emerged as the premier pan-African multidisciplinary tools aimed at those committed to making valuable contributions to the growth, renewal and transformation of our continent’s economic landscape and for deriving maximum value out of the implementation of the AfCFTA. They are genuinely valuable source of information to a huge captive audience of powerful investors, key decision makers in the public and private sectors, policy makers, captains of industry, business chambers, diplomatic corps, academic think tanks as well as individual entrepreneurs from across the continent and abroad.
Inspired by the response of the first instalment of the Biashara Services and Products Africa (BiSPA) Conference and Exhibition last year as it attracted delegates from all over the world with interest in Africa, we then made a commitment to host quarterly virtual seminars as build up to the annual December jamboree.
We held our first quarterly virtual seminar on 3 March 2021 evaluating the opportunities and threats emerging as teething problems immediately after the operationslisation of the AfCFTA on 1 January 2021. This was followed by the second one on 31 May 2021. As this was the ultimate event celebrating the Africa Month, we partnered with the African Diplomatic and Consular Corps resident in South Africa, as led by the Dean of Diplomatic Corps and head of the DRC Diplomatic Mission, H.E. Amb Ben Mpoko. Then the third webinar focused on the film sector, and we were privileged to host Hollywood-based two-time Academy Award winner, Pietro Scalia. This took place during this week on 1 September (see a feature on him in this week’s edition). Scalia won an Oscar for editing “Black Hawk Down”, a seminal movie that was based on the humiliating defeat America suffered at the hands of the rebel leader, Mohammed Farah Aidid, in Somalia.
In conclusion, while reflecting on the challenges imposed on the world by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the “pancession” has thrown the world into – which impact on us as entrepreneurs, do remember the empowering words of Jan Lee Logan: “When the winds of change blow, remember… sometimes what appears dead is simply preparing for a new season!”
Enjoy your weekend
Saul Molobi
Publisher
eMail: saul.molobi@brandhillafrica.com
Tel: +27 11 759 4297
Mobile: +27 83 635 7773
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